Response by Hwang et al to Letter Regarding Article, “Impact of Target Arterial Residual Stenosis on Outcome After Endovascular Revascularization”

We appreciate Cao et al1 for their interest and constructive comments to our recent article.2Cao et al1 suggested that a more intensive antiplatelet strategy during and after endovascular therapy (EVT) may be helpful in patients with excellent pretreatment collaterals and in situ thrombo-occlusion (IST) as a target arterial pathogenic mechanism. The reasons why more intensified antiplatelet therapy can be used in patients with excellent collaterals were as followings: (1) the presence of excellent pretreatment collaterals might be a marker for severe chronic atherosclerotic disease in situations when the angiographic information before acute IST is unavailable; and (2) the chance of procedure-related endothelial damage might be higher in patients with severe stenosis than those with only …